I notice that Foster Farms brand ground turkey (in Calif, USA) is actually labeled "Ground Turkey with natural flavoring". I am curious what sort of "natural flavoring" Foster Farms has added to the turkey meat. The ingredients list is no help as it just lists the two ingredients: ground turkey and natural flavoring.
This product is not sausage. It seems to be just ordinary ground up turkey meat with no visible herbal particles or spicy looking speckles, etc. Does anybody have any idea what natural flavoring this might be, and why it would be added to ground turkey?
Would salt be considered a natural flavoring? OR do you think they might add MSG?
Best Answer
Ground turkey has rosemary added as a preservative.
Effect of Commercial Rosemary Oleoresin Preparations on Ground Chicken Thigh Meat Quality Packaged in a High-Oxygen Atmosphere
I have wondered the same thing. It seems ground turkey invariably has rosemary. I thought maybe turkey had some funk that was countered by rosemary. But I could never taste the rosemary. It turns out it acts as a food preservative. I imagine that having "rosemary" on the label is more palatable to consumers than some chemical preservative name.